1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shield connector mounted to terminals of two shield cables and a method of assembling the shield connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
A shield connector is mounted to terminals of two shield cables for handling a high voltage of an electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) or the like and is used for connecting the two shield cables. A connector housing of each connector of this shield connector has a conductive shell which is connected to a braided wire of one shield cable. The shell has a first end portion configured to have a contact with the shell of the mating housing by having its own connector mated with the mating connector. The first end portion of each of the shells serves as a high-frequency shield in the entirety of the own connector and the mating connector mated with each other.
The structure for connecting the shell with the braided wire in each of the connectors differs with the type of the shield connector. As an example of such structure, a method is given in which a braided wire is expanded to be disposed on an outer periphery at a second end portion of the shell and the braided wire is crimped and fixed to the shell from outside a collective entity of the shell and braided wire by using a crimping member in a form of a ring (for example, refer to PTL 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-87902).
Two methods are given for crimping and fixing the braided wire to the shell in each of the connectors. In the first method, firstly the shell is mounted to the connector housing and subsequently the braided wire is crimped and fixed to the shell. In this case, a force applied to the shell at the crimping may be applied, as a stress, to a housing portion positioned inside the shell, thereby the connector housing may be deformed.
In the second method, firstly the braided wire is crimped and fixed to the shell and subsequently the shell is mounted to the connector housing. In this case, in a state in which the weight of the shield cable connected to the shell is applied, the thin shell is to be inserted into and mounted to a shell mounting portion of the connector housing. Thus, at the time of inserting the shell, it is necessary to make a delicate inserting operation while enduring the weight of the shield cable so as to prevent the shell from causing a flexural deformation due to hooking of the shell with the shell mounting portion.